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Boston Symphony Orchestra

The outstanding American mezzo Susan Graham joins Andris Nelsons,
the BSO, and the women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for
Mahler's Third Symphony, which, along with his Symphony No. 2,
exemplifies the composer's ambitious expansion of the symphonic
genre. This is the second of Mahler's trio of "Wunderhorn"
symphonies (Nos. 2-4) employing text from the folk-poetry
collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The six-movement
symphony is divided into two parts. Part I is a massive,
30-plus-minute opening movement representing a Bacchic procession
celebrating the arrival of summer. Part II (movements 2 through 6)
is a series of character pieces representing the responses of, in
turn, wild flowers, animals of the forest, mankind itself, angels,
and the spirit of love.

Featured Performers & Ensembles

In 2017-18, his fourth season as the BSO's Ray and Maria Stata
Music Director, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra
in twelve wide-ranging subscription programs at Symphony Hall,
repeating three of them at New York's Carnegie Hall in March. Also
this season, in November, he and the orchestra tour Japan together
for the first time, playing concerts in Nagoya, Osaka, Kawasaki,
and Tokyo. In addition, in February 2018 Maestro Nelsons becomes
Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, in
which capacity he will bring both orchestras together for a unique
multi-dimensional alliance; under his direction, the BSO celebrates
its first "Leipzig Week in Boston" that same month. In the summer
of 2015, following his first season as music director, Andris
Nelsons' contract with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was extended
through the 2021-22 season. Following the 2015 Tanglewood season,
he and the BSO undertook a twelve-concert, eight-city tour to major
European capitals as well as the Lucerne, Salzburg, and Grafenegg
festivals. A second European tour, to eight cities in Germany,
Austria, and Luxembourg, took place in May 2016.

The fifteenth music director in the history of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons made his BSO debut at Carnegie
Hall in March 2011, his Tanglewood debut in July 2012, and his BSO
subscription series debut in January 2013. His first CD with the
BSO-live recordings of Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture and
Sibelius's Symphony No. 2-was released in November 2014 on BSO
Classics. April 2017 brought the release on BSO Classics of the
four Brahms symphonies with Maestro Nelsons conducting, recorded
live at Symphony Hall in November 2016. In an ongoing, multi-year
collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon initiated in 2014-15, he and
the BSO are making live recordings of Shostakovich's complete
symphonies, the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and other
works by the composer. The first release in this series (the
Symphony No. 10 and the Passacaglia from Lady Macbeth of
Mtsensk) won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral
Performance and Gramophone Magazine's Orchestral Award.
The second release (symphonies 5, 8, and 9, plus excerpts from
Shostakovich's 1932 incidental music to Hamlet) won the
2017 Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance. Also for Deutsche
Grammophon, Andris Nelsons is recording the Bruckner symphonies
with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Beethoven symphonies
with the Vienna Philharmonic.

In 2017-18, Andris Nelsons is artist-in-residence at the
Konzerthaus Dortmund and continues his regular collaboration with
the Vienna Philharmonic, leading that orchestra on tour to China.
He also maintains regular collaborations with the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic, the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Maestro Nelsons has also been a regular guest at the Bayreuth
Festival and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he
conducts a new David Alden production of Lohengrin this
season.

Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons
began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera
Orchestra before studying conducting. He was music director of the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2015, principal
conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany,
from 2006 to 2009, and music director of Latvian National Opera
from 2003 to 2007. Mr. Nelsons is the subject of a 2013 DVD from
Orfeo, a documentary film entitled "Andris Nelsons: Genius on
Fire."

Susan Graham - hailed as "an artist to treasure" by
the New York Times - rose to the highest
echelon of international performers within just a few years of her
professional debut, mastering an astonishing range of repertoire
and genres along the way. Her operatic roles span four centuries,
from Monteverdi's Poppea to Sister Helen Prejean in Jake
Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which was written
especially for her. She won a Grammy Award for her collection of
Ives songs, and her recital repertoire is so broad that 14
composers from Purcell to Sondheim are represented on her most
recent Onyx album, Virgins, Vixens & Viragos.
This distinctly American artist has also been recognized throughout
her career as one of the foremost exponents of French vocal music.
Although a native of Texas, she was awarded the French government's
prestigious "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur," both for her
popularity as a performer in France and in honor of her commitment
to French music.

To launch the 2017-18 season, Ms. Graham will reprise her star
turn in the title role of Susan Stroman's production of
Lehár's The Merry Widow at the MET, then she
joins Nathan Gunn for Bernstein's Trouble in
Tahiti at Lyric Opera of Chicago, in a special concert to
mark the composer's 100th birthday. To conclude the operatic
season, she returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis opposite James
Morris in Marc Blitzstein's 1948 opera Regina. At the
Boston Symphony, she joins Charles Dutoit for Berlioz's La
Damnation de Faust and Andris Nelsons for Mahler's Third
Symphony, which is also the vehicle for her summer collaborations
at the Tanglewood Festival and later on tour in Europe. Besides
reuniting with Dutoit for Ravel's Shéhérazade at
the San Francisco Symphony, she headlines a gala concert to
celebrate Tulsa Opera's 70th anniversary. She also gives solo
recitals at Emory University and Washington University, and rounds
out the season with a night of cabaret at the Park Avenue Armory in
New York.

Last season, Graham partnered with Renée Fleming for the San
Francisco Symphony's opening-night gala, and joined Anna Netrebko,
Plácido Domingo, and a host of other stars to celebrate the
Metropolitan Opera's five decades at Lincoln Center. Having created
the role of Sister Helen Prejean in the world premiere production
of Dead Man Walking at San Francisco Opera, she
reprised her role in Washington National Opera's revival of the
piece. She returned to Santa Fe Opera as Prince Orlofsky in a new
production of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, and
reprised her signature portrayal of Dido in Berlioz's Les
Troyens at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Concert highlights
included selections from Mahler's Des Knaben
Wunderhornat Carnegie Hall and Canteloube's Chants
d'Auvergne with the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as a
star-studded Der Rosenkavalier at the Boston
Symphony. She gave U.S. recitals of "Frauenliebe und -leben
Variations," her program inspired by the Schumann song cycle, and
expanded her discography with Nonesuch Records' DVD/Blu-ray release
of William Kentridge's new treatment of Berg's Lulu,
which captured her role debut as Countess Geschwitz at the Met.

Graham's earliest operatic successes were in such trouser roles
as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozzedi
Figaro. Her technical expertise soon brought mastery of
Mozart's more virtuosic roles, like Sesto in La clemenza
di Tito, Idamante in Idomeneo and Cecilio
in Lucio Silla, as well as the title roles of
Handel's Ariodante and Xerxes. She
went on to triumph in two iconic Richard Strauss mezzo roles,
Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and the Composer
in Ariadne auf Naxos. These brought her to prominence
on all the world's major opera stages, including the Met, Lyric
Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Covent Garden, Paris Opera,
La Scala, Bavarian State Opera, Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg
Festival, among many others. She performed the leading ladies in
the MET world premieres of John Harbison's The Great
Gatsby and Tobias Picker's An American
Tragedy, and made her Dallas Opera debut as Tina in a new
production of The Aspern Papers by Dominick
Argento. As Houston Grand Opera's Lynn Wyatt Great Artist, she
starred as Prince Orlofsky in the company's first staging
of Die Fledermaus in 30 years, before heading an
all-star cast as Sycorax in the Met's Baroque pastiche The
Enchanted Island and making her rapturously received
musical theater debut in a new production of Rodgers &
Hammerstein's The King and I at the Théâtre du
Châtelet in Paris.

It was in an early Lyon production of
Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict that Graham
scored particular raves from the international press, and a triumph
in the title role of Massenet's Chérubin at
Covent Garden sealed her operatic stardom. Further invitations to
collaborate on French music were forthcoming from many preeminent
conductors, including Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, James Levine
and Seiji Ozawa. New productions of Gluck's Iphigénie en
Tauride, Berlioz's La damnation de Faust
and Massenet's Werther were mounted for the
mezzo in New York, London, Paris, Chicago, San Francisco and
beyond. She recently made title role debuts in Offenbach's comic
masterpieces La belle Hélène and The
Grand Duchess of Gerolstein at Santa Fe Opera, as well as
proving herself the standout star of the Met's star-studded revival
of Les Troyens, which was broadcast live to
cinema audiences worldwide in the company's celebrated "Live in HD"
series. Graham's affinity for French repertoire has not been
limited to the opera stage, having also served as the foundation
for her extensive concert and recital career. Such great cantatas
and symphonic song cycles as Berlioz's La mort de
Cléopâtreand Lesnuits d'été,
Ravel's Shéhérazade and
Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer
provide opportunities for collaborations with the world's leading
orchestras, and she makes regular appearances with the New York
Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Orchestre de Paris and London
Symphony Orchestra.

Graham's distinguished discography features all the works
described above, as well as a series of lauded solo albums,
including Un frisson français, a program of French
song recorded with pianist Malcolm Martineau for
Onyx; C'est ça la vie, c'est ça l'amour!, an album of
20th-century operetta rarities on Erato; and La Belle
Époque, an award-winning collection of songs by Reynaldo Hahn
with pianist Roger Vignoles, from Sony Classical. Among the mezzo's
numerous honors are Musical America's Vocalist of the
Year and an Opera News
Award; Gramophone magazine has dubbed her
"America's favorite mezzo."

This season at Symphony Hall, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus
joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra for performances of Mahler's
Symphony No. 3 (January 18-20) and
Schumann's Nachtlied and Neujahrslied (February
8-10) under BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons; Grieg's incidental
music to Peer Gynt under BSO Associate Conductor
Ken-David Masur (October 19-24); Berlioz's The Damnation
of Faust (October 26-28) and Ravel's
complete Daphnis et Chloé (February
15-17) under Charles Dutoit, and Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No.
3, Kaddish, under Giancarlo Guerrero (March 15-17).
Members of the chorus also participated in this season's
all-Bernstein program on Opening Night. Originally formed under the
joint sponsorship of Boston University and the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus was
established in 1970 by its founding conductor John Oliver, who
stepped down from his leadership position with the TFC at the end
of the 2014 Tanglewood season. Awarded the Tanglewood Medal by the
BSO to honor his forty-five years of service to the ensemble, Mr.
Oliver now holds the lifetime title of Founder and Conductor
Laureate and occupies the Donald and Laurie Peck Master Teacher
Chair at the Tanglewood Music Center. In February 2017, having
prepared the chorus for that month's BSO performances of Bach's B
minor Mass led by Andris Nelsons, the British-born James Burton was
named the new Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, also
being appointed to the newly created position of BSO Choral
Director.

Though first established for performances at the BSO's summer
home, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus was soon playing a major role
in the BSO's subscription season as well as BSO concerts at
Carnegie Hall. Now numbering more than 300 members, the ensemble
performs year-round with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops. It
has performed with Seiji Ozawa and the BSO in Hong Kong and Japan,
and with the BSO in Europe under James Levine and Bernard Haitink,
also giving a cappella concerts of its own on
the two latter occasions. The TFC made its debut in April 1970, in
a BSO performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Leonard
Bernstein conducting. Its first recording with the orchestra,
Berlioz's La Damnation of Faust with Seiji
Ozawa, received a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance of
1975. The TFC has since made dozens of recordings with the BSO and
Boston Pops, with James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Sir
Colin Davis, Leonard Bernstein, Keith Lockhart, and John Williams.
In August 2011, with John Oliver conducting and soloist Stephanie
Blythe, the TFC gave the world premiere of Alan Smith's An
Unknown Sphere for mezzo-soprano and chorus,
commissioned by the BSO for the ensemble's 40th anniversary. Its
most recent recordings on BSO Classics, all drawn from live
performances, include a disc of a cappella
music led by John Oliver and released to mark the TFC's 40th
anniversary; and, with James Levine conducting, Ravel's
complete Daphnis and Chloé (a 2009
Grammy-winner for Best Orchestral Performance),
Brahms's German Requiem, and William Bolcom's Eighth
Symphony for chorus and orchestra (a BSO 125th Anniversary
Commission). Besides their work with the BSO, TFC members have
performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Zubin Mehta and the
Israel Philharmonic; participated in a Saito Kinen Festival
production of Britten's Peter Grimes under
Seiji Ozawa in Japan, and sang Verdi's Requiem with Charles Dutoit
to help close a month-long International Choral Festival given in
and around Toronto. The ensemble had the honor of singing at Sen.
Edward Kennedy's funeral; has performed with the Boston Pops for
the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics; and can be heard on the
soundtracks of Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, John
Sayles's Silver City, and Steven
Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. TFC members
regularly commute from the greater Boston area, western
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont,
and Maine, and TFC alumni frequently return each summer from as far
away as Florida and California to sing with the chorus at
Tanglewood. Throughout its history, the TFC has established itself
as a favorite of conductors, soloists, critics, and audiences
alike.

James Burton was appointed Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival
Chorus, and to the new position of BSO Choral Director, in February
2017. Born in London, Mr. Burton began his training at the Choir of
Westminster Abbey, where he became head chorister. He was a choral
scholar at St. John's College, Cambridge, and holds a master's
degree in orchestral conducting from the Peabody Conservatory,
where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier. He has
conducted concerts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hallé, the Orchestra of
Scottish Opera, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, and
Manchester Camerata; in early 2016 he made his debut with the
Orquestra Sinfònica Nacional with concerts in the Palacio de Bellas
Artes in Mexico City. Opera credits include Don Giovanni
and La bohème at English National Opera, Così fan
tutte at English Touring Opera, The Magic Flute at
Garsington, and Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica
at the Prague Summer Nights Festival. He has served on the music
staff of the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Paris, English National
Opera, Opera Rara, and Garsington Opera, where he was honored with
the Leonard Ingrams Award in 2008. He has also conducted in
London's West End and led a UK tour of Bernstein's Wonderful
Town in 2012. His extensive choral conducting has included
guest invitations with professional choirs including the Gabrieli
Consort, the Choir of the Enlightenment, Wrocław Philharmonic, and
the BBC Singers, with whom he performed at the Dubai Opera house in
its inaugural season earlier this year. From 2002 to 2009 he served
as choral director at the Hallé Orchestra, where he was music
director of the Hallé Choir and founding conductor of the Hallé
Youth Choir, winning the Gramophone Choral Award in 2009.
He returned to Manchester in 2014, preparing the choirs for a
Grammy-nominated recording under Sir Mark Elder of Vaughan
Williams's Sea Symphony. From 2002 to 2017 he was music
director of the chamber choir Schola Cantorum of Oxford, touring
all over the world and recording with Hyperion Records. He
collaborates regularly with leading young musicians and in 2017
appeared as guest director of the National Youth Choir of Japan and
the Princeton University Glee Club, as well as the Genesis Sixteen.
He teaches conducting, and has given master classes at the Royal
Academy of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music. In 2011 he
founded a conducting scholarship with Schola Cantorum of Oxford.
His compositions and arrangements have been performed
internationally, and his orchestral arrangements for Arlo Guthrie
have been performed by the Boston Pops, by many other leading U.S.
orchestras, and at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. His
commissions have included the music for the 2010 World Equestrian
Games opening ceremony, a setting for chorus and orchestra of
Thomas Hardy's The Convergence of the Twain commemorating
the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, and a recent
Christmas carol premiered by the Choir of St. John's College,
Cambridge, live on BBC Radio 3. His choral works are published by
Edition Peters. As BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton occupies the Alan J. and
Suzanne W. Dworsky Chair, endowed in perpetuity.